AFTER MUCH NEGOTIATING, A BUDGET

LEE FOSTER; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

The budget workshop Thursday sounded at times like a country auction or a Far Eastern bazaar with all the bargaining going on.

But by the time the workshop ended, town council members had agreed on a compromise that kept the tax increase to 1 mill, gave $15,000 more to the fire department for a training center and restored $165,000 to the board of education budget.

But it took almost two hours of haggling to reach the compromise.

The workshop started with Chairman Joel Fain's proposal to restore $191,000 to school spending "to avoid crippling the board of education budget," Fain said.

Acting Town Manager David Smith had reduced the school board's requested budget by $450,000, down to $16,450,000.

School board Chairman Charles Higgins and board member Vicki Daniels were in the audience hoping their presence would encourage the council to restore some of the cuts. Fire department officials were also present to lobby for their training center.

Council members Carole Metcalf-Gordon, Richard Field and Robert Kiehm said they wanted to allocate more money to the fire department for a firefighter training center, but they disagreed on the amount.

Metcalf-Gordon started the bargaining by suggesting $20,000 for the training center and $171,000 for education.

The center project had been allocated $200,000 on Tuesday and there is $15,000 left from an earlier allocation for architectural and engineering fees.

There is expected to be about $200,000 available for the increases because several revenue items will be higher than anticipated -- including the Pequot Fund contribution and education reimbursement from the state. The council also decided to use a total of $300,000 from the accumulated budget surplus to offset increased spending.

The council last week cut $327,000 from the budget proposal.

As council members batted around offers that see-sawed between favoring education or the fire department, school board members and fire department officers watched the proceedings with growing impatience.

At what seemed like an impasse -- Fain favored no more money for the center and Field suggested another $50,000 for the center -- Fain declared a five-minute break. During the break, Kiehm carried out some "shuttle diplomacy," seeking out Fire Chief Ronald Littell Sr., who had walked angrily out of the room, and then returning to confer with Higgins and Daniels.

When the workshop resumed, Kiehm presented the deal he had worked out -- another $15,000 for the center, to bring the total to $230,000, and $165,000 for education.

"We'll take it," yelled Littell, who had returned.

Metcalf-Gordon, Kiehm, Field and Charles Regan cast the four yes votes required to adopt the newly revised budget. Fain cast the single negative vote because he considered it "shortchanging the board of education" as well as "not a long- term solution" for the needs of the fire department.